After Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, this is the second instalment in the Yoshi series. Yoshi’s Story was first released by Nintendo, exclusively for the Nintendo 64, in 1997.

The game takes place within a pop-up story book and is a side-scrolling platformer/collect ’em up. Playing as Yoshi, you must eat fruit across a series of worlds, made from different materials (wood, plastic, cardboard, fabrics, etc.), in order to get the highest score possible.

Yoshi’s Story has three play modes: Story Mode, Trial Mode and Practise. In Story Mode you play through a sequential series of levels as Yoshi goes in search of The Super Happy Tree. Trial Mode is a combination of time trial and points-scoring, with levels being unlocked by playing Story Mode.

When you begin a game you must choose a particular coloured Yoshi, and your Lucky Fruit, both of which have an effect on scoring. Then it’s a process of platforming and exploration, to find the 30 pieces of fruit needed to complete the stage. As Yoshi eats fruit, the tally builds up around the screen.

The flower in the top left is your health counter. As the petals fall off, the lower your health gets. When all the petals are gone, you lose a life and must start the stage again. Yoshi‘s mood is also a factor. Pressing Start brings up an info panel which quantifies Yoshi‘s mood into points. When his mood is high, Yoshi can apparently do special things. No idea what, though…

Throwing objects at things is a key game mechanic, just as it was in Yoshi’s Island. You can collect eggs by headbutting coloured blocks, and then throw these at fruit inside bubbles, at enemies, at stone blocks, and at bosses. You can also eat certain enemies to turn them into throwable eggs.

Another key game mechanic is the ‘ground pound’ (jump, then press down), which Yoshi uses to activate things, knock things over, or force himself into exit jars.

Like all good Nintendo games, Yoshi’s Story is brimming full of hidden secrets to uncover. Story Mode is relatively short and not too taxing to play, but it is dense with detail, and does offer some re-play value.

Special mention has to go to the music, which is brilliant. The opening title music is memorable (it sounds like a choir of babies singing “Little Drummer Boy“…) and there are many different ditties that push the ‘jolly’ levels to ridiculously high.

The gameplay does feel like a nice continuation of Yoshi’s Island and is both simple and clever. Yoshi’s Story is another must-play classic game from Nintendo, for all ages.

More: Yoshi’s Story on Wikipedia